Almost Famous

Yesterday, a selfish and sick man went into a mall in the Heartland, Omaha, and opened fire. Although I am almost certain that this happens in America, and as trite as it may seem, no one, including myself, thought this would happen here.

My family and friends here are safe and okay. As far as I know. As of printing time, we still don't have the names of the victims.

As I learned about this, I talked nicer to my kids and held them a little tighter. The odds that one of my friends, mostly stay-at-home-moms was at the mall are high. First of all, of all the play areas in the malls here, that's the mall with the coolest play area. Secondly, it's the holiday season, middle of the day, and although I do not enjoy shopping, stereotypically - us moms like to shop and take our kids to the mall.

Last night, I went to a girls night out, and held my breath that we would all show up. We did.

So, while I sit here and watch the news, I am sickened. This guy was sick. But when he notes that he is doing this to go out in style and to be famous, and the media appeases that request, I'm sickened mostly by the national media. Here, in the local media, I am impressed that the local media refuses to give this guy what he wanted. They've minimally repeated his name and outwardly said they won't be a part in making him famous. But the national media insists that we grieve as a nation by posting this guy's name and picture up with a constant reminder that he wanted to be famous. I woke this morning to see Omaha, Nebraska and a picture of this guy getting endless amounts of screen time. "The largest single-handed massacre in Nebraska" according to Matt Lauer. Well, guess what? You're doing it for him, idiots. And it's not that you're giving this guy exactly what he wanted, but you are encouraging future potential sick people on the brink of losing it that if they do the same thing, maybe kill a few more, that they'll get their fame too.

***Update Dec. 6 - I watched an entire NIGHTLINE show devoted to profiling this kid. I would hope that for everytime they mention his name, they mention the victim's name 10 times. And they should profile the victims instead. As consumer, I'd prefer to see the profiles of the victims. ***

I have a journalism background and I've reviewed this in my head for a while now. There's absolutely no journalistic responsibility to constantly post this kid's name up or his picture. As a society, we do not need to know why he did this. What we need to know as a society, is that our media has a responsibility to explain what happened to the victims and to give no tv screen attention to the suspect.

Why can't just one media venue step up and say, "We'll report the crime and the victims. We will not ever mention this kids' name nor his picture"? In hopes that a future fame-seeking mentally-ill student of how to commit heinous crimes from the media will not learn how to do it.

They have just released the names and ages of the victims, as I type. One name sounds familiar. No children were hurt. It was a mix of customers as well as employees. There's so much more, but for now please keep them in your prayers.

That's how I roll.